itachishusbunny:

On the topic of incest, I just wanted to poke at the bit where people are screaming about incest between cousins (i.e specifically the ship Itachi/Shisui) and how they would like to… ‘protect’ Itachi? As a character? I have a few bones to pick here haha.

1. Fandom decided that Itachi and Shisui are cousins, instead of simply clansmen. There’s also the insinuation that they’re very closely related cousins (i.e first or second cousins). But we know from canon that:

a) they have only ever referred to each other as ‘friend’, ‘best friend’, ‘closest friend’, ‘like a brother’, ‘dearest friend’ and,

b) they never met until Itachi was five. If they had been closer in relation, there’s a high possibility they would have met up with each other more frequently. Itachi didn’t even know who Shisui was that first day they met.

Clans are very large, particularly the Uchiha clan, which likely ran into the hundreds. They were more likely to just be clansmen, though related, but not first or second cousins at all. So, a bit of misrepresentation there by fandom that automatically think ‘family’ = small nuclear-ish families. 

2. I’m not sure what people are trying to protect Itachi from if his own parents are, by their definition, ‘incestuous’? Fugaku and Mikoto are both from the same clan.

3. Nearly every clan with secret techniques in the Naruto world are ‘incestuous’ by your definition. The Uchiha, Hyuuga, Akimichi, Nara, Aburame, Inuzuka for instance. And these are only Konoha clans. Pre-founders era, you also had the Senju and Uzumaki. Uzumaki in particular, because red hair is such a recessive trait. So Mito, Kushina, Karin and Nagato most likely came from parents who were both Uzumaki or one parent had very strong relations to the Uzumaki clan (i.e Senju, since we know from canon that the Senju and Uzumaki clans kept marrying each other, which ultimately relates both the clans themselves).

4. The aversion to intermarrying between cousins is an extremely modern Western point of view. Look back into history and notice how the Western nobility intermarried, how actual clansmen intermarried, how certain ethnic groups intermarried etc. Literature before the mid-1900′s freely include such interaction and not in any negative light. Plus, the majority of countries and cultures around the world today have no issue with first cousins marrying. The only issue here is increasing the risk of passing on faulty genes that run in a higher rate within the ‘family’. It is also not a religious concept, because you will note the many instances of incest within the Judeo-Christian religious texts as well.

This kind of ignorance is actually pretty culturally insensitive. And yes, I am going there with saying that the shinobi culture is an Eastern culture. Western concepts do not particularly apply or work with the setting and how the characters interact int eh Naruto Universe… even down to addressing their elders within the family and within rank and file.

So… I really don’t know what people are trying to protect Itachi from. His own culture? Himself? 

Just blacklist the ship(s) and move on?